The Russian Revolution and the birth of the Soviet Union

Totalitarian Government in the Soviet Union

Totalitarian government is the exact opposite of liberal democracy…

• Suppress individual liberties

• Abolish all competing political parties

• Eliminate or regulate private property

• Use the bureaucracy and technology to impose its ideology and enforce its commands

-the ultimate goal of a totalitarian state is…

• Total control of the individual- what is believed, what values are held…

• There are no private moral judgements, no individual thought, no individual conscience…

• People have no natural rights…, they are building blocks for a new social order...

• Czar Nicholas II - “Autocracy, Orthodoxy and Nationalism”

• Unlike his predecessors, he was weak, incompetent and suspected of being under the influence of his German-born wife Alexandra, and a half-crazed monk named Grigori Rasputin.

• There were two revolutions in 1917:

• The February (March-western calendar)

• The October (November…)

The November 6th Revolution…

• The second revolution was instigated and inspired by a radical socialist party then known as the Bolsheviks. Its leader was Vladimir Lenin.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov • 1870-1924• Third of five children

to a respectable middle class family

Alexander Ulyanov – idolized by his younger brother

• Implicated in an attempted conspiracy to kill Czar Alexander III, he was executed.

• Vladimir was arrested and exiled to Siberia in 1887 for participating in anti-government demonstrations

• In 1890, Lenin was given permission to enter the law school at St. Petersburg.

• By 1897, exiled again for his anti-government speeches and pamphlets

• In 1900 exiled to Switzerland

Vladimir Ulyanov became a folk legend…

• All Soviet books called Lenin a genius and the greatest thinker who ever lived.

World War One: The Battle of Tannenberg, 1914

• In 1915, Czar Nicholas decided to go and direct the war from the front lines

• Czarina allowed a crazed monk named Rasputin to run the homefront

Demonstrators gathering in front of the Winter Palace in Petrograd, just prior to the Russian Revolution, January 1917.

Economic Causes

• Illiterate and oppressed peasant majority

• Striking workers shut down industries

• Inefficient transportation system

• Food and fuel shortages

Social Causes

• Extreme differences in classes

• Peasants’ desire for land

• Deprivations resulting from the war

Political Causes

• Autocracy - weak and ineffectual ruler

• Spread of Marxist ideas

• Charismatic leaders such as Lenin and Trotsky

• Enormous losses in The Great War

Abdication: March, 1917

Nicholas Romanov became a private citizen

• The provisional government the “Kerensky Government” [because its primary figure was Alexander Kerensky] made a fatal mistake – it remained in the war.

• Lenin (living in Switzerland) was secretly aided by the German govt to return to Russia

Upon returning to Russia, Lenin promised “Peace, Bread and Land” …and “All Power to the Soviets.”

Lenin.

October. Power to Soviets. Land to Peasants. Factories to Workers.

Peace to all Nations.

Leon Trotsky- architect of the October (November) Revolution

• Seized the headquarters of the Provisional Government; as well as key govt buildings, railway stations, telephone exchanges, electric generating plants

• Next morning, all soviets approved the takeovers.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, March 1918

• Lenin gave up 1/3 of the population, 3/4 of Russia’s iron resources and 9/10 of its coal supply plus a huge indemnity to Germany

• The Bolsheviks accepted Germany’s harsh conditions in order to focus on securing power…the real revolution was yet to come.

• News of the treaty contributed to a civil war – the Reds vs the Whites - which lasted until 1921.

• Czar Nicholas II and his family were first exiled to Siberia but later, in July of 1918 were killed

“The Bolsheviks didn’t cause a revolution, they captured it.”

Lenin suffered a stroke and paralysis in 1922; his health slowly deteriorated until his death in 1924

Iosef Vissarionovich Dzhugashavili

1879-1953

• “Stalin” transformed the Russian Empire” into the Soviet Union; from a poor, undeveloped agricultural country into one of the world’s industrial and military giants.

• Stalin’s early years…

1888-1894 attended local church school

• Tiflis Theological Seminary

Stalin arrest records…

As a revolutionary, Stalin .…

• helped organize workers’ strikes…

• set up a secret press to spread Marxist ideas…distributed illegal pamphlets…

• participated in train and bank robberies…

• by 1912, was a member of the inner circle of the Bolshevik party.

• Lenin and Stalin in Finland

Stalin’s “second death” strategy

• 1927 expelled from the Communist party

• 1928 exiled to Siberia• 1929 deported to

Turkey/Mexico• 1940 murdered

Planned Economy or Command Economy

Stalin’s Industrial policies

• Initiated five year plans to promote the production of heavy machinery

• Focused on building steel mills, cement plants and oil refineries.

• Limited production of consumer goods like clothing and cosmetics.

Stalin’s Agricultural policies

• Eliminated wealthy, land-owning kulaks

• Initiated Collectivization- large government farms called “collectives” replaced private plots.

Stalin’s Political policies- Dictatorship of the Communist Party

• Created a secret police with unlimited power to crush dissenters critical of Soviet life

• Strictly controlled the minority nationalities• Used “show trials” to eliminate and intimidate all

potential rivals • Used art & literature to glorify himself and the

Communist State

Stalin’s Social/Cultural policies…“The Cult of personality”

• Mandated & expanded education at all levels• Promoted educational opportunities for women• Censored all forms of creative thinking and

expression • Replaced religious teachings with Communist

ideals

• THE END……. any questions my comrades?

Any Questions?

The End